To J. D. Hooker   10 October [1855]

Down Bromley Kent

Octr. 10th.

My dear Hooker

I am glad to hear from Mrs. Hooker that you are returned, & that your tour has answered well.—1 I suppose you will be very busy for some time, as Mrs. Hooker says you are going to move to Kew soon.—2

I write now to thank for the seeds for salting received about 10 or 14 days ago from Kew; but I am sick of the job for reasons which I will tell you when we meet, & which will please you3 (. NB. capsicum & celery seed have come up after 137 days immersion.).

I was going to have written to you to send 2 grand seeds which I have received from Norway,4 cast up by Gulf-Stream; but since enquiring about your return, I have changed my mind & determined to soak them in salt-water for 10 days to see if they continue to float, & then I will send them you to name (if you can) & have them planted.—5

I wrote a short & dull letter from Glasgow to you;6 I don’t know whether you received it, but do not fash yourself on any account by writing to me now that you must be very busy.—

I was much pleased with, & extremely obliged by the excessive kindness of Mr Gourlie7 at Glasgow, to whom you once introduced me at the Gardens.—

Adios. I suppose you will soon set to work like a Trojan. Farewell. | C. Darwin

I am reading Decandolle8 with much interest.

2
After his appointment as assistant director of Kew Gardens, Hooker and his family moved back from Richmond Hill to a house near the gates of the gardens (L. Huxley ed. 1918, 1: 352).
3
Although CD’s experiments demonstrated that many seeds germinated after prolonged submersion in salt water, most of the seeds sank after a few days. This result seemed to weigh heavily against transport by ocean currents. See letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 April [1855], n. 2, and subsequent letters.
6
The letter has not been found. CD was in Glasgow to attend the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
7
William Gourlie, Scottish botanist, had studied under William Jackson Hooker.
8
Candolle 1855. An annotated copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.1 or 14] interl
2.3 (. NB. capiscum … immersion.) 2.4] square brackets in MS
2.3 celery] after del illeg

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1763,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1763